Context: I’ve created a character based on the Living Asheth from the Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones. It wasn’t that hard to adapt her for DnD rules - she’s an aasimar divine soul sorceress, and the DM has approved replacing the aasimar wings with an extra pair of incorporeal arms. But what would make her extra fun to play is if she could have one of the cats from the book. Unfortunately... well...
My plan is to have it as a companion animal similar to what beast master rangers have, though without the stat bonuses. I would say what I wanted it to do, but the DM would ultimately be in charge of its actions. It wouldn’t be a familiar - the telepathic link and pocket dimension seem unnecessary and go against my goals to make the adaptation as accurate as possible.
Everything in the stat block right now is directly from the books. The cats can understand speech, sense magic, and sprout extra heads and legs when threatened - at will originally, but that’s been my only nerf so far. Now obviously, this is OP as heck. I expected as much from the start (after all, one of these cats literally almost tore someone to SHREDS in 15 seconds in the books) but that’s where you guys come in. Is there any way to make it balanced enough to be a companion for a low-level character, while keeping the spirit of the books and preventing it from being a pure liability in combat?
I can't see the link (if it isn't published, only mods can).
I dont know the source material, but if the person this creature tore up in 15 seconds was for all purposes a normal human, than this creature would have the amazing damage output of about 2 per turn.
But yeah, either publish your creature, or copy and paste its stats here for us.
AC is usually 10+DEX, which would be 13 in this case.
The hit dice if tiny creatures is a d4. 3d4 would average 7 HP, 4d4 would average 10.
Stealth should be +5 (+3 DEX, +2 proficiency)
It doesn't really need that bite attack.
Make a second set of attack actions it can only use while frenzied to make them all clear. Make sure to add an ability modifier (probably DEX) to those attacks' hit and damage mod.
Thanks for the notes! I’m going to wait for some more people to give feedback before I update the page (wider spread of input and all), but this is great to know so far.
I should ask you though - with your edits, would you as a DM approve this creature as a pet/companion for a low-level sorcerer?
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Just a dysfunctional girl addicted to fantasy because I’m tired of living in reality
Avatar picture: Wizard PC Dess Miranova, drawn by Porzio_art
I should ask you though - with your edits, would you as a DM approve this creature as a pet/companion for a low-level sorcerer?
3d6+9 (adding mods) per turn is a lot. Running it through the DMGs creating a monster section: it has a defensive CR 1/8 and an offensive CR 3, averaging CR 2. Which is a bit high to have as just a familiar. It is strong enough to have to adjust the difficulty of encounters to compensate.
I wouldn't really have a problem with it, just bear in mind the encounter adjustment thing.
Since no one else has weighed in, I guess I'll just post my second version now. I nerfed the frenzied attacks somewhat, though I'm not sure they're as strong as you're thinking since they only last one minute per short rest. Thoughts?
It's a CR 0 that can turn into a CR 1 for a minute once per rest.
14 effective HP (7, doubled for resistances at Tier 1) suggests defensive CR 1/8. AC 13 would leave it there, but disadvantage on all attacks against it gives enough of a boost to effective AC to bump it up to defensive CR 1/2.
16.5 damage per round suggests offensive CR 2. +3 to hit (is it somehow not proficient?) leaves it there.
That gives CR 1. Not by multiplying together the offensive and defensive CRs; nor by adding them together, dividing by 2, and rounding 1 1/4 down; but by converting the CR progression to a linear progression (CR 1/8 becomes 1, CR 1/4 becomes 2, CR 1/2 becomes 3, and CR 1 and up become their value + 3), averaging those values, and converting back. (You round CR up, so if it was proficient with its attacks, it would be CR 2.)
As a monster, it's CR 1. As a familiar, it's suitable for a warlock's Pact of the Chain, and no more overpowered for everyone else than a tressym, since normal familiars can't attack. As an animal companion, well, let's just say the DM had better give everyone else similarly OP goodies. The problem is keeping it alive.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Hmm... maybe I should just abandon the idea of having one as a companion then. After all, DWJ wrote these cats to live all together in an established place, not to travel around with adventurers constantly getting into dangerous situations. I was hoping it would work out, but it turned out to be too much of a stretch. Ah well.
That said, if any DMs out there want to use this stat block for a NPCreature (is that a term?), feel free - just make sure you know that the original idea was from DWJ and consider reading The Lives of Christopher Chant for more character context.
It seems to me like you could lower the CR by replacing True Sight with a slightly higher Passive Perception, a special ability to smell the presence of invisible creatures, and reducing Asheth's Fury to a simple 1d3. At 3 attacks per round, that is still enough to kill a Commoner in 1 round.
If you want to journey with the Asheth Temple Cat, just make up a particular plot reason why one cat might want to journey with your character. Perhaps she was a caretaker of the cat as a kitten. Perhaps one of these temple cats was stolen at the age of 6 months and your character recovered him/her.
Context: I’ve created a character based on the Living Asheth from the Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones. It wasn’t that hard to adapt her for DnD rules - she’s an aasimar divine soul sorceress, and the DM has approved replacing the aasimar wings with an extra pair of incorporeal arms. But what would make her extra fun to play is if she could have one of the cats from the book. Unfortunately... well...
Here’s my current draft of their stats: https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/340916-asheth-temple-cat-in-progress
My plan is to have it as a companion animal similar to what beast master rangers have, though without the stat bonuses. I would say what I wanted it to do, but the DM would ultimately be in charge of its actions. It wouldn’t be a familiar - the telepathic link and pocket dimension seem unnecessary and go against my goals to make the adaptation as accurate as possible.
Everything in the stat block right now is directly from the books. The cats can understand speech, sense magic, and sprout extra heads and legs when threatened - at will originally, but that’s been my only nerf so far. Now obviously, this is OP as heck. I expected as much from the start (after all, one of these cats literally almost tore someone to SHREDS in 15 seconds in the books) but that’s where you guys come in. Is there any way to make it balanced enough to be a companion for a low-level character, while keeping the spirit of the books and preventing it from being a pure liability in combat?
Just a dysfunctional girl addicted to fantasy because I’m tired of living in reality
Avatar picture: Wizard PC Dess Miranova, drawn by Porzio_art
Music, anyone?
I can't see the link (if it isn't published, only mods can).
I dont know the source material, but if the person this creature tore up in 15 seconds was for all purposes a normal human, than this creature would have the amazing damage output of about 2 per turn.
But yeah, either publish your creature, or copy and paste its stats here for us.
Whoops, didn’t know about that - I thought it was a “whoever has the link” situation. It should be viewable now.
Just a dysfunctional girl addicted to fantasy because I’m tired of living in reality
Avatar picture: Wizard PC Dess Miranova, drawn by Porzio_art
Music, anyone?
Alright, here come the notes from top to bottom:
Thanks for the notes! I’m going to wait for some more people to give feedback before I update the page (wider spread of input and all), but this is great to know so far.
I should ask you though - with your edits, would you as a DM approve this creature as a pet/companion for a low-level sorcerer?
Just a dysfunctional girl addicted to fantasy because I’m tired of living in reality
Avatar picture: Wizard PC Dess Miranova, drawn by Porzio_art
Music, anyone?
3d6+9 (adding mods) per turn is a lot. Running it through the DMGs creating a monster section: it has a defensive CR 1/8 and an offensive CR 3, averaging CR 2. Which is a bit high to have as just a familiar. It is strong enough to have to adjust the difficulty of encounters to compensate.
I wouldn't really have a problem with it, just bear in mind the encounter adjustment thing.
Since no one else has weighed in, I guess I'll just post my second version now. I nerfed the frenzied attacks somewhat, though I'm not sure they're as strong as you're thinking since they only last one minute per short rest. Thoughts?
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/351373-asheth-temple-cat
Just a dysfunctional girl addicted to fantasy because I’m tired of living in reality
Avatar picture: Wizard PC Dess Miranova, drawn by Porzio_art
Music, anyone?
It's a CR 0 that can turn into a CR 1 for a minute once per rest.
14 effective HP (7, doubled for resistances at Tier 1) suggests defensive CR 1/8. AC 13 would leave it there, but disadvantage on all attacks against it gives enough of a boost to effective AC to bump it up to defensive CR 1/2.
16.5 damage per round suggests offensive CR 2. +3 to hit (is it somehow not proficient?) leaves it there.
That gives CR 1. Not by multiplying together the offensive and defensive CRs; nor by adding them together, dividing by 2, and rounding 1 1/4 down; but by converting the CR progression to a linear progression (CR 1/8 becomes 1, CR 1/4 becomes 2, CR 1/2 becomes 3, and CR 1 and up become their value + 3), averaging those values, and converting back. (You round CR up, so if it was proficient with its attacks, it would be CR 2.)
As a monster, it's CR 1. As a familiar, it's suitable for a warlock's Pact of the Chain, and no more overpowered for everyone else than a tressym, since normal familiars can't attack. As an animal companion, well, let's just say the DM had better give everyone else similarly OP goodies. The problem is keeping it alive.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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Hmm... maybe I should just abandon the idea of having one as a companion then. After all, DWJ wrote these cats to live all together in an established place, not to travel around with adventurers constantly getting into dangerous situations. I was hoping it would work out, but it turned out to be too much of a stretch. Ah well.
That said, if any DMs out there want to use this stat block for a NPCreature (is that a term?), feel free - just make sure you know that the original idea was from DWJ and consider reading The Lives of Christopher Chant for more character context.
Just a dysfunctional girl addicted to fantasy because I’m tired of living in reality
Avatar picture: Wizard PC Dess Miranova, drawn by Porzio_art
Music, anyone?
It seems to me like you could lower the CR by replacing True Sight with a slightly higher Passive Perception, a special ability to smell the presence of invisible creatures, and reducing Asheth's Fury to a simple 1d3. At 3 attacks per round, that is still enough to kill a Commoner in 1 round.
If you want to journey with the Asheth Temple Cat, just make up a particular plot reason why one cat might want to journey with your character. Perhaps she was a caretaker of the cat as a kitten. Perhaps one of these temple cats was stolen at the age of 6 months and your character recovered him/her.